Intel Core 2 Duo vs Core 2 Quad ?

clarkfield

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Jul 17, 2011
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Hello tom's hardware, i'm new here so congratulate to the forum and hope you can help me about my question :)
So i know this question have asked many people but i'll never been clear about the answers and so i need a best answers from you!
OK let's starting about my question... when you testing the performance between both cpus example Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz/3MB/1066fsb and Core 2 Quad 2.66GH/4mb/1333fb, which processor is the faster in non intensive apps like a basic aplications for example browsing windows explorer, surfing internet, listening to music...etc ? so if theres no difference between both in normal apps why then intel makes some cpus with lower fsb and some with higher fsb speed, so does this mean more cache and high fsb helps only in intensive apps or and in normal apps ? Well this is my question and for any answer you write im very thankful to you :)
 
If you are doing basic things then generally speaking you should not notice any real difference between a duo core and quad core of the same speed. The duo core can feel slightly sluggish if many background processes are running at the same time, but most times it should be marginal.

The one process that can have a minor noticeable difference is when your anti-virus program is scanning your entire computer while you are using it.
 
The names themselves give you an idea. Duo ( 2 ) and Quad ( 4 ) Cores. The more, the better for multi tasking. Unless the quad core CPU uses all of it's cores on a single program, the Duo beats the quad ( unless the Quad has less clock speed, it would be the other way around ).
For Example , when you're playing a game with, say E8600, and the game only requires a dual core, the quad, say a Q6600, would lose. These days however, you need quad machines for everything, so technically , if you tend on upgrading, getting a quad core would be better.